Author's Notes: And so it is... after nearly an entire year of nearly shelving this fucking thing.

Done, I'm fucking finished with this chapter... are you guys happy now? Are you pleased by my success? Can I please stop being hassled with, "Where's the next chapter?" appearing in all of my other stories... and a Coeur Al'Aran (he's better than me, check him out instead, for the love of God) forum chat when someone noticed me.

*Sighs*I said I would go through with this story, and I'll keep to that promise.

Anyways, here's the next chapter, you buncha gits, enjoy.

Q&A:

Yeah... no. Too many reviews and I'm not going to spend my word count on this. So just enjoy the story.

I do not own RWBY or Batman.

"There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate humanity so much!?"

-Taking Initiative-

Arkham Asylum had been built by the infamous Amadeus Arkham, that much is true. But there is a dark story behind the founder of the renown institute for the mentally insane: starting from the death of the his mother, having been taken by dementia (or some say and believe that it was by her son's own hand); his wife and daughter raped and dying at the hands of a serial killer; and the death of their killer, also known as "Mad Dog", meeting his end from either a small group of aggressive Arkham security, or a rather... unfortunate accident involving electroshock therapy.

In the end, however convoluted it may seem, this all led to the death of Amadeus Arkham and, in extent, the legacy of the Asylum: it's obscure myths taking root and giving the institute it's notoriety that it had unfortunately earned.

But let us go back to where it had originally started: the death of his mother and what had lay behind her unfortunate illness. Under the delusions of a malevolent spectre had come to haunt and terrorize her, calling to a much-younger Amadeus to save her. However, whether her death was by illness or her son's euthanasia, it matters not. What does matter is what she had seen.

What she saw, the object within her addled mind that had plagued her so very so: a bat... a being tied to the realm of death itself, an omen foreshadowing of events to come. Unfortunately for her, as if fate had such a cruel sense of humor, such had come true.

It's the irony that a bat being a spectre of death would take his mother's life, yet many years later: another bearing the symbol of the bat becomes a frequent visitor to this so-dubbed "madhouse" and is responsible for the high activity of such an institute.

Oh, such cruel, cruel irony indeed...

"Sorry boss. Took a little longer to find him than you figured it would," Quentin replied as he had gotten a call from the man who broke him out of his cell.

Though he may have been free, he was hardly in the position to say that this was a step up from his little cell back in Blackgate. The place was cramped, the walls were dirty, the irrigation was shit... hell, Quentin was sure he saw a turd floating from the water flowing downstream. But regardless, the inmate was now free, so he didn't have much to complain over besides those little nitpicks.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll try to be more precise when I'm planning an island TAKEOVER!" the Joker then snapped with fury.

The inmate panicked as he gripped the phone that held the voice of his boss as though his life depended on it... which it pretty much was, "Hey, I didn't mean-"

"Criticism, I can take. I mean... I'm not perfect," he mused, pausing to contemplate for only a half second before correcting himself, "Well... come to think of it, I'm pretty close to perfect, aren't I? Now where was I?

"Oh yes: criticism; from a worm like you, worm who is crawling around free because I arranged to open his cell, is something I will not tolerate!"

"I-I'm sorry, boss! I didn't mean it like that, please!" a chill crawled up the criminal's spine as the Joker's tone began to grow more and more agitated with each passing second. This really wasn't beginning to look good for him.

"Well, seeing as you're apologetic, I'll just have someone drive 'round to your house... and break your wife's legs,"

N-no... not her, anything but her, "But Joker-!"

"You got a problem with my generous nature?"

"Err... uh, no um... I-I guess not. Uh, urgh, thanks...?" the inmate swallowed hard, wondering if the Clown Prince of Crime would actually do it. His mind went numb with fear as he realized who exactly he was talking to...

"Oh, don't mention it. Let's consider the matter closed," "Did I ever tell you the one about the guy who came home to find his wife a paraplegic? AhahahahahahaHAHAHAHAAA...!"

The man really considered hanging up on the lunatic out of sheer anger, though two things stopped him before the idea could cross his mind once more.

One, if he hung up, then the Joker would take to that personally and actually act on his threats... or worse. The very thought chilled Quentin to his bones as he imagined his wife laying in a hospital bed hooked up to a respirator... both of those things they couldn't afford with his incarceration. But at least the thought was more comforting than a morgue.

Second... a strong force wrapped tightly around his throat before he felt his head slam into the wall. The thoughts of his wife passed through his head as he slipped into unconsciousness, barely getting a glimpse at the Dark Knight and his ally now dressed in newly-given armor...

"Hellooooooo! Anyone ther-"

The phone that the inmate had dropped fell silent as it made a one-way trip down the sewers via an armor-reinforced boot. Blake turned to the unconscious inmate before looking at Batman with a mixed expression, one that spoke of worry, fear, and concern.

"He'll be fine," the Dark Knight alleviated the girl's fears before readjusting his gloves, "He'll only wake up with a slight concussion and an ugly bruise."

Blake let out a sigh of relief as she followed Batman up the rusty iron stairs and towards a turn. Though she may have been training as a Huntress and the fact that she may have to take a life somewhere along her career, she didn't want such a thing to be anytime soon, especially in this place. The faunus girl frowned at the grim reminder: the fact that she was no longer in Remnant and she had to help a guy dressed up as a bat beat people up with his fists and a collection of bat-themed devices to stop an evil clown...

At what point in time did she stop considering this weird, again? Blake let out a humorless chuckle before stopping at the corner and hearing a collection of voices close by, each of them sounding like the usual inmate that she's heard so far.

They mentioned something about a door close by, "-If we we even get it open, we dunno what it'll do."

"Hell no, man," another responded, his voice ripe with a mixture of fear and anxiety, "I ain't goin' near it. You even touch that door and... It'll getcha!"

"Yeah, you 'member Mickey, right?" a third voice spoke up.

"He was an idiot... deserved to be eaten," another inmate rebutted poorly, earning a hard glare from the faunus girl, though he failed to notice it.

Someone else came up with a better response, "I say we just tell Joker we couldn't find him. We'll be safer, No un'll know,"

There came a collection of agreements amongst the group, one of them explaining that waiting would make their argument more convincing, while another hazarded the others that the Joker is worse than 'Croc'.

Blake couldn't help but grin at the conclusion: by gauging what they had been talking about, the inmate's conversation had told them where to go, what exactly was there (in her case, this 'Killer Croc' that she had run into briefly when she first arrived), and why they wanted to keep that door shut.

Perfect.

"Five guys, none of them armed," Blake whispered to the Dark Knight, who had been crouched just right beside her at the corner of the wall.

"Good," was all he said before walking full-view before the criminals and gauging their reactions as they spotted him. Blake couldn't help but notice a ghost of a smirk as he made his way towards them.

"Yeah yeah, that'll work! It'll be sweet and no one will kno- holy shit, it's Batma-" the first interruption from the thug was when he spotted Batman making his way towards them. The second cut-off to the man's words was the moment his teeth made contact with the Dark Knight's cold-steel batarangs, feeling his head snap backwards and stumble back into two of the others behind him.

The other two that spotted him charged towards them with animalistic yells, both pulling back their fists to swing at him as the Batman continued to stand before them. Unfortunately for them, they didn't consider the second presence that followed right behind the Caped Crusader, or why he didn't look poised to him them. Instead, rather than making their mark and landing a hit on the Dark Knight, they both fell face-first into the stone floor, the two groaning in pain as two swift kicks knocked them both out clean courtesy of Blake Belladonna herself.

Two down, three more to go.

Batman leapt from his side of the hallway and landed before the nearest inmate with a swift kick to the head for greeting, moving on to the next inmate as the last one's skull slammed against the wall with a loud crack, forcing him to take a dirt nap while his assaulter moved onto the next.

Meanwhile, another thug swung his fist at the girl before him, his fist making contact with her cheek only for her to disappear as the punch he landed slammed into the wall opposite of the other unconscious thug. Another crack resounded, only this time it came from the inmate's hand, feeling most of the bones break in his hand as the girl faded like a mirage before reappearing as a fist slammed into his nose, simultaneously breaking it and knocking the man out.

Blake turned around to see Batman flipping the last criminal onto his back before pulling his leg up and twisting it with a loud snap. The pain and shock itself knocked the last inmate out as he now slumped to the floor. She watched as the Dark Knight merely readjusted his wrist braces before giving her a brief nod and walking onward to their next destination. Instead, their path divulged into two: a left and a right, and in the middle was what seemed to be a rather large roll of film.

The two decided to take the right, only to see a close door. While Blake continued to step forward, Batman was a bit more cautious and decided to keep his distance.

"Don't," was the only thing he said.

"What's the problem?" Blake asked, giving him a confused look.

The look he gave her was that of concern before finally answering, "Tap on the door, but do not open it."

Blake's confusion only continued to grow as she complied, her hand hovering over the door before her knuckles softly rapped on the rusted metal door. She was greeted by silence for only a brief second as nothing seemed to happen.

"Nothing's happeni-"

The faunus leapt back with a yelp as she saw a monstrous figure roar through the glass. Her eyes scanning fearfully across it's hulking and scaled body, taking in each grotesque feature as well as the broken cuffs that had once restrained it before it then slammed a heavy fist into the glass, forcing heavy amounts of cracks to form along the glass.

"I will find you, Batman..." it growled, peering through the broken glass and ignoring the girl on the other side of the door and instead focusing on the Dark Knight just a bit farther away, "Rip your flesh like paper..."

"That was..." she turned around to look at Batman, who continued to hold his usual stoic and gruff expression, "That was..."

"Killer Croc," the man finished before turning around and walking off, "You two met just a bit earlier."

Blake narrowed her eyes at the man for a split-second, "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

"Was it?"

The girl opened her mouth to retort, but immediately decided to retract her statement, "Nevermind... how did he get out?"

"Do you really want to know?" the Dark Knight queried, leaning over and looking at the audio tape, his eyes glowing white for only a few seconds before returning to their original blue color.

Now that she thought about it... no, no she did not.

Deciding not to answer, the two continued their trek down the other path, making their way down a narrow hallway and crushing another set of laughing, chattering teeth on their way through. Thankfully, the silence was killed by the voice of Oracle.

"So I've been digging deeper into Dr. Young. According to her bank records, there have been multiple payments, starting last April until two months ago," she explained over their headsets, "Then nothing... the payments came from a company owned by a Mister Jack White."

"One of Joker's oldest aliases," the man beside Blake answered, keeping his finger pressed against the ear on his cowl, "So... Joker pays Dr. Young to create his army and then all of a sudden he stops. Doesn't make sense."

Now it was Blake's turn to be think on that. She mayn't have been in this Asylum long enough (hell, she's barely even been on this planet before!) to know the Joker's way of thinking. But with Batman explaining his abilities as a criminal mastermind, she knew that there was more to the story than just a deranged clown deciding to cut the flow of money into Young's accounts and expecting her to comply like some child.

After reaching the end of the hall, they passed through a nearby door and made their way to the next area. Blake stopped as soon as Batman did, taking in the scenery of crumbling and dilapidated column structures. Seeing the opportunity, Blake decided to unholster her new grapple gun from her belt and point it up at one of the structures.

*BANG!*

Blake heard the metallic clang of the hook leaving the barrel of the gun and anchoring itself to the top. With a boost of confidence swelling within her, she decided to give the wire a firm tug to confirm that it was stable.

Instead, one of the bricks gave way... with Blake having to watch as the hook of the gun retreated back into it's sheathe.

"This area is unstable," Batman advised, "We'll have to climb."

"You could've told me that the first time," the girl glared.

"I could've," he said before making his way down the stairs, leaving a silent, still, and gawking Blake Belladonna. After a couple seconds, she shook her head and continued to follow after him.

'Asshole,' she fumed silently to herself as she finally caught up with him, earning another transmission from Oracle.

"Alright, so here's something strange," she began, "The payments to Dr. Young's accounts didn't stop exactly, they were declined. She put a block on her account."

"Sounds like a change of heart. She tried to block her payments," Batman said as he veered a sharp right at the stony crossroads, "Joker doesn't like it when his partners try to back out."

Blake couldn't help but feel a chill crawl up her spine as she was sense some form of familiarity with that sentiment... one that seemed to run parallel with the White Fang. Remembering how some of their "supporters" had their doubts and tried to pull out from the malicious intent of the now-radicalized group that had once held peaceful philosophies. She had heard the rumors of what happened to them... and only the really lucky ones had the chance to be killed quickly by Adam. She remembered all of their names: the Ivori family, the Sable Ministries, Mayor Remmus, all of them trying to back out before meeting their ends...

The girl shook her head, focusing on the priorities at hand.

"So he decided to get himself back into Arkham, find his formula, and create the army himself!" Oracle exclaimed, having deduced what the Joker had been planning all along. If they failed, then Joker's promises of his hundred-cop body count really would happen, probably even more than that.

'Dammit, Blake,' she cursed to herself as she climbed a small ledge and followed after Batman, 'Focus!'

"Alright, I've hacked into her email account," the woman on the other end of the line informed through their headsets, "Only two mails stand out."

The two immediately leapt from their crumbling platform and onto a rusty metal stand. Blake stumbled slightly and held onto the railing as she felt the metal beneath her vibrate slightly. She continued to follow the Dark Knight past a large gap between two ledges, between them leading to a deadly and a precarious drop to certain death... lovely.

"The first is a resignation letter dated last week," Oracle explained as the faunus broke into a sprint and leaped, catching her fingers on the railing while Batman landed right beside her and was about to offer a hand to her, "Sounds like she was trying to get away."

"What about the other one?" Blake asked, pulling herself up and walking just behind the Batman, who had been walking ahead of her as soon as he saw her pull herself up.

"I was just about to get to that, Blake... hold on, let me see... okay, I got it. It's a message from Joker- well, under the persona of Jack White. It's a pretty long thread."

"We've got all the time in the world."

"Hmph, I'm sure you do," Oracle chuckled, "Well, she's begging him to let her stop the experiments, saying it's too dangerous and that he's not listening. Let's see... random threats to her family, a couple of bad jokes... a picture of a dead baby, and another threat."

"Geez," Blake cringed at the thought, "Anything else?"

The woman on the other end of the line cleared her throat for a brief second before continuing, "Well, he then begins with something along the lines of, 'I'm coming for you... I want what I paid for. A joke about wheelchairs... lovely. And a drawing of some kind of donkey."

Now for some reason, Blake almost felt like there was something personal the wheelchair joke as soon as it was mentioned. Though the young girl merely passed it off as nerves.

After another hop and skip, they made it to another platform.

"No wonder she's so scared," Batman replied, "We're coming up to the surface, we'll find her."

The connection was cut and the two began to pick up the pace. Dashing up an inclined makeshift ramp formed from a broken column, they leapt to another platform and climbed higher before crossing the gap of yet another incline, this one including water. Blake scowled as her clothes were caked in dirty water, though the new armor itself did it's best to cover up what her wet clothes couldn't. On the far side was a Riddler trophy, so now she used the opportunity to use her new Batclaw, taking aim once more and firing.

The claw sprang out at the glowing green question mark with the same intensity as before, the claws opening up and snagging onto the object before Blake finally reeled it back in. She caught the object in her hand before dropping it to the ground and crushing it beneath one of her high heels.

"Thank the Lord," the voice of the Riddler invaded their headsets, "I thought that one would've taken you two hours to find!"

Blake turned to look at the Dark Knight with an exasperated look, "Do you ever have the feeling of wanting to punch this guy in the face for no particular reason?"

"There's always a reason behind their motives," Batman answered as he passed by here. The man paused for a split second and looked over his shoulder, "But yes... yes I do."

With another climb up a steep incline, they leaped over another edge and grasping at the other side, pulling themselves back up. Batman took the lead once more and took a left, leading into a narrow and ruined hallway. Blake paused and turned to look back at where they entered, surprised that they managed (even more so, Batman: someone lacking an Aura or semblance) to maneuver through the entirety of that rocky and abstract-esque labyrinth. Another door opened, another tape was seen and grabbed before heading up a set of stairs ascending before taking a right and following the path before coming up to a dead end.

"Wait... we came all this way to a dead en- what are you doing?" Blake was about to argue before watching the Dark Knight approach the wall, holding his canister of explosive gel up and spraying a bat-shaped symbol on the wall.

"Stand back," was all he said before pulling the trigger, though managed to give the faunus girl enough time to cover her ears.

*BOOM!*

With the tap of a button, the entire wall gave way with a sudden force. When the dust cleared away, Blake saw a perfect square-shaped entrance, one that the black-clad man had already been going through with a single bound, "Wait, Blake!"

Before she could realize it, the ground gave way beneath her as her next step met nothing, "N-no!"

Blake felt her entire sense of gravity invert as she felt herself begin to fall. With fumbling fingers, she tried to reach for Gambol Shroud, something that would've saved her in such a situation... but fortune did not shine as it slipped from her grasp, about to fall into the pitch-black abyss below had she not caught the elastic black ribbon that it had been attached to in tim. Her other hand desperately trying to grab for something else, anything to grab onto and cling for dear life.

The faunus let out a muffled cry of pain as she felt a sudden pain flare about her ankle, though the descending feeling had ground to a halt. Through her pained and panicked state arose curiosity; craning her head, she looked up to see Batman, his chest pressed against the ground tightly as his arm stretched out as far as he could allow it, the Dark Knight's fingers wrapped tightly around her ankle before his arm began to pull back. Trying not to flail too much in fear, she felt herself being pulled back to solid rock and ground.

With one final tug from both Batman pulling her back to solid ground, as well as her fingers finally finding a ledge to grasp, she pulled herself up along with him before finally coming to a halt. Seconds felt like minutes as she finally regained her senses. She blinked her eyes a couple times before finally realizing what had happened to her. She let out a shuddered sigh and looked down at her hands, feeling how cold and clammy they felt before realizing that her entire form was touched with a light sweat.

"Come on," the familiar voice of the Dark Knight had brought her comfort, and his saving of her even more so. She looked up to see the same hand that had saved her before. She looked at the hand... then at him for only a few seconds before grasping his large hand with her own smaller one, finally being brought to her feet.

She hadn't said this before... but the man was tall, very tall. Blake looked at the black-clad vigilante: his imposing figure, his deep gravely voice... it almost reminded her of her father. It explained why she felt so comfortable around him.

Though with relief came dread. The young faunus realizing her dilemma... her parents...

'No, stop it Blake,' she chastised herself, trying to keep a normal demeanor as the Dark Knight turned back and walked towards the exit on the other side, knowing that she would follow, 'Just stay calm. Stay strong, the rest will follow. I'll... I'll get back home. With Ruby, Weiss, and... and Yang. I'll see mom and dad again after all this... madness.'

So Blake followed after him, as the Dark Knight knew she would. The girl trailed after him and followed suit through another door, feeling the fresh air touch her exposed skin as it led her to the outside world.

Despite being in the asylum, even worse the sewers. She felt free... yes, that was the word.

Free.

Disclaimer: Oh dear, how long has it been? An entire year? I would very much like to apologize for the delay, knowing that all of you were rather frustrated by the lack of updates in a while. I had been a bit busy with other things. High School and the rest of the stories taking up most of my time.

I would once again like to reiterate what I had said before: this story, though with it's much planned sequels, is not my top priority. My other fics that I have created are to be updated as well. I have much to do with each and every single one of them as I have a lot planned for them.

Sorry if this chapter is shorter than all the others. It's been quite a while and this chapter needed to be shortened as a way of getting me back into a writing mood (easing my way back into writing as I haven't done so in a long while).

On a side note, I would like to wish Sai Kunai Blade a happy birthday. As he is the writer for "The Bat and the Blonde: Arkham Asylum", a sister fic that was inspired by this one. I would highly recommend reading his as well, as it has content of it's own that I had my own fun reading.

Anyway, keep an eye out for the next chapter (though that might take a while as well, sorry about that) and let me know what you think of this one.

In the meantime, stay beautiful, ladies and gents.